In the province of Girona there are around 43,000 legalized homes for tourist use, but the sector estimates that there may be around 4,000 flats and houses outside the law. The Associació Turística d’Apartaments Costa Brava-Pirineu de Girona (ATA) calls on the municipalities to be more involved in combating this phenomenon that damages the image of the destination and has a negative impact on the municipal coffers, since they no longer receive the income from the tax tour.
“The city councils should be the first to be interested in ensuring that there are no illegal flats in their municipal area,” says the president of the association, Esther Torrent, who criticizes that “most of the Town Halls do not act to prevent this fraud.” And they don’t do it, many times, due to lack of means. The data reflects that the complaints arrive with a dropper. Those processed by the ATA in relation to intrusion were about twenty at the beginning of the summer campaign.
Among the most active municipalities in the fight against intrusion is that of Lloret de Mar, which was a pioneer in Catalonia in approving an ordinance that set a maximum limit of 3,300 homes for tourist use in the municipality. It also set a quota for each of its zones and has an inspection body that enforces the norm and prevents the proliferation of illegals.
At the moment, some thirty files have been filed in Lloret this summer, of which five are for not having the plate that identifies that it is a tourist-use dwelling. Not having complaint forms, that the owner does not answer or complaints from neighbors for incivility or noise are other problems that have been detected.
The City Council has focused on the Roca Grossa urbanization, which concentrates 600 of the total 3,288 tourist licenses. In this area, far from the center, there are plenty of large-capacity houses with swimming pools, the object of desire for many young tourists. The mayor of Tourism, Frederic Guich, acknowledges that it is the “most saturated area”. The percentage of homes for tourist use is at the limit, with 9.37% of the total.
Next summer the City Council plans to monitor all the illegal offers that are advertised through different Internet portals. A strategy that they already follow in Begur, where periodically a municipal technician reviews the websites where these illegal accommodations are advertised. The Councilor for Economic Promotion, Andreu Peñalver, affirms that the frauds are very varied: some invent the registration number, others advertise, ensuring that they will not be charged a tourist tax… The council also does pedagogy among the real estate agencies that manage these real estate to eradicate intrusion.